most impossible for the Italian sein- 

 ers to set their nets (Paini 1975). In 

 1975 the Japanese government pro- 

 hibited their longliners from fishing 

 in the Mediterranean as part of its 

 compliance with the ICCAT regula- 

 tions (Kume 1976). 



Numerous longline vessels of 

 South Korea, Nationalist China, 

 Cuba, Venezuela, and the Soviet 

 Union ha\e also caught bluefin tuna, 

 along with other species, in the At- 

 lantic in recent years (Miyake and 

 Tibbo 1972). 



Offshore big game fishing for 

 bluefin tuna and other large oceanic 

 fishes (chiefly billfishes) became 

 popular in parts of the northwestern 

 Atlantic during the 1 930s (Farrington 

 1939) and expanded to a highly de- 

 veloped pursuit after World War II 

 (Farrington 1949) Centers of in- 

 tensive sport fishing for bluefin tuna 

 have been off the northwestern Ba- 

 hamas in spring, and along the United 

 States coast from Virginia to Maine 

 and in Canadian waters off south- 

 western Nova Scotia, eastern New- 

 foundland, and in the Gulf of St 

 Lawrence in summer and early fall 

 Thousands of private and charter 

 boats have participated in this fish- 

 ery, with as many as a thousand an- 

 glers in two hundred boats entering a 

 single tournament. Sport fishing for 

 bluefin tuna has also been popular in 

 eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean 

 waters. Centers have been the 

 Oresund off Denmark, the North Sea 

 off England, the Canary Islands, the 

 Bav of Biscay oft' northern Spain, the 

 Italian Riviera, and the Mediterra- 

 nean coasts of France and Spain Re- 

 cent low availability of fish has re- 

 duced interest in sport fishing lu sev- 

 eral of these areas 



The northeastern Atlantic fish- 

 eries for large and medium sized blue- 

 fin tuna began a decline in 1963 

 which reduced several of ihcm to ex- 

 tinction bv 1973. Bluefin tuna pro- 

 duction in the Japanese oceanic 

 longline fisher> peaked rapidly in 

 1 962- 1 965 but declined to a low level 

 by 1967 



The reported total catches of the 

 Mediterranean fisheries, on the other 

 hand, appeared to be maintaining 

 themselves satisfactorily as iccenlly 



as 1971. Apparently, however, cen- 

 tral Mediterranean (Italian. Tunisian, 

 and Libyan) trap fisheries, have re- 

 cently undergone a collapse similar 

 to that experienced by those in the 

 eastern Atlantic. Catches were fairly 

 good through 1969, but in 1972 and 

 1973 traps which had fonnerly pro- 

 duced thousands of fish per year 

 yielded only a very few hundred 

 Only a handful of the once numerous 

 Italian traps survive. This decline has 

 been offset recently by the entry of 

 the Japanese longline fisher^' into the 

 area and the development of the Ital- 

 ian purse seine fishery for giant blue- 

 fin in the central Mediterranean. It 

 should be noted that both of these 

 fisheries also use spawning concen- 

 trations 



Another notable trend in nearly 

 all of the Atlantic and Mediterranean 

 fisheries for large bluefin for vhich 

 data are available has been the \irtu- 

 allv complete absence of medium 

 sized (32-122 kg, ages approximately 

 5-8) and a marked scarcity of small 

 giant (123-200 kg, ages approxi- 

 mately 9-11) bluefin from the catches 

 This trend has been reversed in the 

 central Mediterranean fisheries in 

 1975 (Miyakc 1976) 



In the following section, we will 

 discuss the distribution of Atlanfic 

 bluefin tuna and the fisheries for it in 

 detail. 



C. DISTRIBUTION AND 

 FISHERIES BY AREAS 



1. Introduction 



In this section we will discuss 

 the following information, bv area; 



1 ) Times and locations of occur- 

 rences of bluefin tuna, ar.d Ihcir \ ana- 

 tions with size of I'ish 



2) Fisheries and fishing meth- 

 ods. 



3) fhe volume and si/e compo- 

 sition of the catches, and their trends 



The size composition by years 

 of samples of the catches of most of 

 the ma]or fi.shcnes is illustrated b\ 

 histograms. The tables from which 

 most of these histograms were plot- 

 ted have been reproduced, with the 

 sources of the data, m ICCAT Data 

 Record, Vol. 3, Madrid. 1974 



2. Western Atlantic 



■fhc maior fisheries for bluefin 

 tuna on the western Allanlic conti- 

 nental shelf are concentrated between 

 Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and 

 Newfoundland, Canada (Figure 14). 

 The small fish have been predomi- 

 nant in the area between Cape 

 Hatteras and Cape Cod, Massachu- 

 setts, but medium sized and giant 

 fish have also occurred there in num- 

 bers on occasion. Giant fish have been 

 predominant m the region between 

 Cape Cod and Newfoundland in re- 

 cent years Until 1966, medium sized 

 bluefin were often abundant between 

 Cape Cod and Nova Scotia. In some 

 years during the 1950s, small bluefin 

 were the most numerous size group 

 in northern Massachusetts waters, but 

 wc have nc\'er heard of their occur- 

 rence in significant numbers off 

 Canada 



The gears used for bluefin tuna 

 in this area include harpoons, hand 

 lines, traps, rods and reels, and purse 

 seines 



Some giant bluefin have also 

 been taken by sport gear oft' the north- 

 western Bahamas and by small-scale 

 commercial fisheries off some Cu- 

 ban ports Captures of bluefin tuna 

 elsewhere in western Atlantic coastal 

 waters have been insignificant. 



a. Newfoundland to Cape Cod 



i. Newfoundland 



There has been little commer- 

 cial fishing for bluefin tuna off the 

 Canadian island of Newfoundland 

 (Figure 15), but good sport fishing 

 for the species was enjoyed there from 

 1961 through 1972. 



This fishery was initiated at Con- 

 ception Bay in 1956. and was .veil 

 developed there by 1961. Another 

 productive ground, Notre Dame Ba\ , 

 was opened in 1967, with most of the 

 boats ba.sed at Lcwisporte 'fhc fish- 

 ing usuallN extended from mid-July 

 to mid-October from 1961 through 

 1972. catches of up to 635 fish were 

 taken in Newfoundland waters each 

 season Many of these fish were 

 tagged and relea.sed. The catch has 

 declined drastically since 1972, with 

 less than 100 fish being taken each 

 season Nearly all of the catch con- 

 sisted of giants, and their modal 



18 



